Centuries Encircle Me with Fire

Selected Poems of Osip Mandelstam. A Bilingual English–Russian Edition

by Osip Mandelstam

Edited and translated by Ian Probstein

Published by: Academic Studies Press

Imprint: Academic Studies Press

Language: English

304 Pages

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Description
Contents
Contributors
Praise
Media

Acknowledgements
A Note on the Text
Osip Mandelstam: “Centuries encircle me with fire”
On Translating Mandelstam

Осип Мандельштам (1891–1938)
Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938)

Из книги «Камень» (стихотворения 1908–1915)
From Stone (poems of 1908–1915)

Дано мне тело—что мне делать с ним . . .
I am given a body—what should I . . .

Я ненавижу свет . . .
I hate the light . . .

Паденье—неизменный спутник страха . . .
The fall is a constant companion of fear . . .

Айя-София
Hagia Sophia

. . . На луне не растет . . .
. . . Not a single blade . . .

Посох
The Wand

Уничтожает пламень . . .
The fire destroys . . .

Из книги «Tristia» (стихотворения 1916–1922)
From Tristia (poems of 1916–1922)

Декабрист
A Decembrist

Когда в тёплой ночи замирает . . .
When a feverish forum of Moscow . . .

Прославим, братья, сумерки свободы . . .
Hail, brothers, let us praise our freedom’s twilight . . .

Tristia
Tristia

На каменных отрогах Пиэрии . . .
On steep stony ridges of Pieria . . .

Сёстры тяжесть и нежность, одинаковы ваши приметы . . .
Sisters, heaviness and tenderness, your traits are akin . . .

Вернись в смесительное лоно . . .
Go back to the incestuous womb . . .

Веницейской жизни, мрачной и бесплодной . . .
The meaning of fruitless and gloomy . . .

За то, что я руки твои не сумел удержать . . .
Because I could not hold your hands in mine . . .

Из книги «Стихотворения» (1928 г., стихотворения 1921–1925 гг.)
From Poems (1928, poems of 1921–1925)

С розовой пеной усталости у мягких губ . . .
With the pink foam of fatigue around soft lips . . .

Век
The Age

Нашедший подкову
The Horseshoe Finder

Грифельная ода
The Slate Ode

Язык булыжника мне голубя понятней . . .
Clearer than pigeon’s talk to me is stone’s tongue . . .

А небо будущим беременно . . .
And the Sky is Pregnant with the Future . . .

1 января 1924
January 1, 1924

Нет, никогда, ничей я не был современник . . .
No, I’ve never been anyone’s contemporary . . .

Я буду метаться по табору улицы тёмной . . .
I’ll rush along a gypsy camp of a dark street . . .

Из Новых cтихотворений 1930–1934 гг.
From New Poems of 1930–1934

Армения
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Armenia
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

На полицейской бумаге верже. . .
On the police laid paper the night. . .

Не говори никому . . .
Don’t tell it anyone—forget . . .

Колючая речь Араратской долины . . .
A prickly speech of the Ararat Valley . . .

Как люб мне натугой живущий . . .
How dear to me are those people . . .

Дикая кошка—армянская речь . . .
A wild cat—the Armenian speech . . .

Я скажу тебе с последней . . .
I will tell you this, my lady . . .

За гремучую доблесть грядущих веков . . .
For the thunderous courage of ages to come . . .

Нет, не спрятаться мне от великой муры . . .
No, I won’t be able to hide from a great mess . . .

Неправда
Untruth

Полночь в Москве. Роскошно буддийское лето . . .
Midnight in Moscow. A Buddhist summer is lavish . . .

Отрывки из уничтоженных стихов
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Excerpts from Destroyed Poems
1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Еще далеко мне до патриарха . . .
I am far from being as old as patriarch . . .

Сегодня можно снять декалькомани . . .
Today we can take decals . . .

Ламарк
Lamarck

Импрессионизм
Impressionism

Батюшков
Batiushkov

Дайте Тютчеву стрекóзу . . .
Give Tiutchev a dragonfly . . .

Ариост
Ariosto

Не искушай чужих наречий, но постарайся их забыть . . .
Do not tempt foreign tongues—attempt forgetting them, alas . . .

Квартира тиха как бумага . . .
An apartment is quiet as paper . . .

Давай же с тобой, как на плахе . . .
Let’s start preparing for the scaffold . . .

Мы живём, под собою не чуя страны . . .
We live without feeling our country’s pulse . . .

Восьмистишия
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
Octaves
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Стихи памяти Андрея Белого
To the Memory of Andrei Bely

Утро 10 января 1934
1 | 2 | 3
The Morning of January 10, 1934
1 | 2 | 3

10 января 1934 [вариант 2]
January 10, 1934 [version 2]

Из Воронежских тетрадей (стихотворения 1935–1937)
From the Voronezh Notebooks (poems of 1935–1937)

Из Первой тетради
From the First Notebook

Пусти меня, отдай меня, Воронеж . . .
Let go, Voronezh, raven-town . . .

Я должен жить, хотя я дважды умер . . .
I have to live though I died twice . . .

Лишив меня морей, разбега и разлета . . .
Having deprived me of seas, flight, and space . . .

День стоял о пяти головах. Сплошные пять суток . . .
The day was five-headed: five unbreakable days . . .

Еще мы жизнью пóлны в высшей мере . . .
We are still sentenced to life . . .

Римских ночей полновесные слитки . . .
Solid gold bars of the Roman nights . . .

За Паганини длиннопалым . . .
They run like a gypsy throng . . .

Исполню дымчатый обряд . . .
I’ll fulfill a dim rite . . .

Из Второй тетради
From the Second Notebook

Не у меня, не у тебя—у них . . .
Not I, not you—but they . . .

Улыбнись, ягненок гневный с Рафаэлева холста . . .
Smile, angry lamb from Rafael’s canvas, don’t rage . . .

Дрожжи мира дорогие . . .
World’s golden yeast, our dear . . .

Еще не умер ты, еще ты не один . . .
You haven’t died yet. You are not alone . . .

Что делать нам с убитостью равнин . . .
What should we do with murdered plains . . .

Вооруженный зреньем узких ос . . .
Armed with the vision of narrow wasps . . .

Из Третьей тетради
From the Third Notebook

Стихи о неизвестном солдате
Verses on the Unknown Soldier

Сквозь эфир десятично-означенный . . .
Through the ether of ten-digit zeroes . . .

Для того ль должен череп развиться . . .
Should the skull develop its brow . . .

Для того ль заготовлена тара . . .
Is the packaging of charm stored . . .

Я молю, как жалости и милости . . .
I beg like compassion and grace . . .

Я скажу это начерно, шёпотом . . .
I will say it in draft and in whisper . . .

Может быть, это точка безумия . . .
It might be the point of insanity . . .

Не сравнивай: живущий несравним . . .
A living man’s unique: do not compare . . .

Чтоб, приятель и ветра и капель . . .
To help a friend of rain and wind . . .

Гончарами велик остров синий . . .
A blue island, green Crete is extolled . . .

Длинной жажды должник виноватый . . .
A guilty debtor of a long-time thirst . . .

О, как же я хочу . . .
Oh, how I madly crave . . .

Нереиды мои, нереиды! . .
My nereids, oh, my nereids! . . .

Флейты греческой тэта и йота . . .
Greek flute’s theta and iota . . .

На меня нацелилась груша да черемуха . . .
I’m under fire of a bird cherry tree and a pear tree . . .

[Стихи к H<аталии> Е. Штемпель]
1 | 2
[Poems for N<atalia> Е. Shtempel]
1 | 2

Abbreviations
Bibliography
Publications of Works by Osip E. Mandelstam
Translations into English
Translations of Osip Mandelstam’s Poems into Other Languages
Criticism

“Probstein has an encyclopedic knowledge of modernist Russian poetry and its counterparts in the West, in particular Pound and Eliot (who he has translated into Russian). Readers and scholars will go to this introduction for information on specific Mandelstam poems as well as for a deep understanding of his poetics and the poetics of translation in reference to Mandelstam. The virtue of his translations follow upon this. These translations do more than many others in situating the poems in their historical and literary context. These are translations coming from a poet and scholar who comes from Russia but who has spent much of his adult life in New York. The balance between his knowledge of Russian literature and Anglo-American poetry and poetics is astounding. Probstein pulls off what might seem impossible: bringing an ear for the Russian, including the intricacies of Mandelstam’s prosodies, into English, which includes carrying over specific resonances from the Russian. That is to say, this book is the product of a fully—I want to say 'hyper'—bilingual poet, scholar, and translator. The English versions are so deeply immersed in the Russian sources that they give us a Mandelstam different than what is otherwise available.”
— Charles Bernstein, the 2019 Bollingen Poetry Award Winner

“Osip Mandelstam ranks among the most influential poets of the 20th century. Deeply connected to literary modernism both in Russia and abroad and one of the most notable representatives of Acmeist school of poetry, Mandelstam coined a unique poetic voice that continues to enchant and confound readers and translators. In his new translation, Ian Probstein combines his own poetic aesthetics with his scholarly sensibility and meticulous research to offer the reader a new approach to rendering Mandelstam’s poems in English. Positioned side-by-side with their Russian originals, the English verses in Probstein’s translation find the delicate balance between capturing the meaning of the original and reproducing its unmistakable Mandelstamian dynamism and music in English. Far from merely rendering Mandelstam’s verse in English, Probstein studies Mandelstam’s aesthetic and ideological evolution, and draws on the historical and political context of each verse to dictate his own choices in translating it.”
— Margarit Ordukhanyan, PhD, translator

“Few English translations of Osip Mandelstam’s poetry capture its striking imagery and metrically intricate intonation as well as Ian Probstein. Probstein conveys Mandelstam’s diction with precision and elegance. Those who are familiar with the originals will easily recognize them in this translation, while Probstein’s use of contemporary English-language poetics, including rhyme, makes Mandelstam’s work accessible to the native English speaker.
As another tragic chapter in Russia’s history of oppression unfolds, this striking new translation of Osip Mandelstam, a victim of Stalin’s terror, is a timely and welcome contribution to the project of making Russian voices silenced by their own leaders heard, read, and appreciated in the West.”
— Ilya Kutik, Northwestern University

“This book is the fruit of Ian Probstein’s lifelong dialogue with the poetry of Mandelstam’s, but now is the time when it is most needed. With the barbaric war waged against Ukraine by the Russian government, Russian culture must again hold the line, as Mandelstam did. Throughout his life, Mandelstam ‘fenced to defend nature’s honor,’ to cite his poem about Lamarck, the great biologist who ascribed humanity to evolution, and, as importantly, Mandelstam stood up for the honor of civilization, which would long have failed to redeem itself without such intercessors. Ian Probstein’s book is a perfect introduction to Mandelstam’s poetry, not only because of the carefully selected texts accompanied with insightful and apropos commentary, but primarily because of his translations. These strike a balance between faithful and creative, allowing the reader to partake both of Mandelstam’s ‘rhyme’ and ‘reason.’”
— Basil Lvoff, Hunter College